


A Pile of Dread

by Rose_Bud99



Series: A Pile of Clones [2]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anakin Skywalker is the Chosen One, Bet you can't guess what it is, Episode: s03e19 Counter Attack, F/M, Feels, Fix-It of Sorts, Friendship, GFY, Gen, He's not in this part, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Just fuck him in general, Light Angst, Loss of Limbs, M/M, Major Character Injury, Mando'a, Mentions of other clones - Freeform, Minor Violence, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Out of Character, Pre-Slash, Rarepair, Some Swearing, Tags Are Fun, That's Not How The Force Works, The 501st love their General, The Author Regrets Nothing, These tags are a novel, Worth It, fuck Sidious, fuck if i know, i think, not graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:54:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28633578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rose_Bud99/pseuds/Rose_Bud99
Summary: "What happened?" Rex asks, calm as ever."Nothing." Anakin shakes his head. "Just a nightmare." But dread settles low and heavy in his gut.(Or Anakin has a vision about Echo's "death" and decides to do something about it.)
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, CT-21-0408 | CT-1409 | Echo & Anakin Skywalker, CT-21-0408 | CT-1409 | Echo/CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives, CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives & Anakin Skywalker, CT-7567 | Rex & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Series: A Pile of Clones [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1823764
Comments: 3
Kudos: 104





	A Pile of Dread

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this took so long, but it's finally finished and I'm really happy with it.
> 
> Scorch isn't in this part. He's busy. He'll be back in the next part.
> 
> Hope you enjoy this.

_Heat. Sweat down his back and plastering his hair to his forehead. Hand gripped tightly around his weapon. Echo looks at him, a determined thrill in his eyes._

_"I don't want to end up a wall decoration," Fives says, his voice almost echoing._

_"Are we going to rescue Master Piell?" Ahsoka asks._

_"The citadel," somebody--it sounds like Master Plo--says, their voice nothing more than an echo._

_"This is our only chance! We've got to stop them!" Echo yells._

_There's a ship. It looks Separatist. In front of it is Echo, in full armor, a commando droid's shield in one hand, his rifle in the other._

_"Echo!" Fives screams._

_There's an explosion, then heat and pain and fear._

_"Don't leave me. Please! Don't leave me!"_

Anakin jerks awake, gasping for breath, his cheeks wet with tears. He reaches out, trying to find someone; he doesn't know who. A small hand grasps his. 

"Master!"

They're calling for him. He can hear them calling for him, but he can't focus on them. 

"General!"

He needs... He needs... He doesn't know what he needs. 

"Anakin."

Anakin's head jerks around, and he makes eye contact with the man who called his name. Echo stares back at him with a facade of calm.

"Anakin. Focus. Breathe. Relax," Echo orders, sounding calm and steady. Anakin takes a deep, raking breath. He reaches out with his free hand. Echo moves forward quickly and grasps his hand. "Just breathe, Anakin. I'm here. We're here. Just breathe."

Anakin breathes. 

He doesn't know how long it takes for him to focus. When he finally does, he's almost embarrassed at the situation he finds himself in. Ahsoka has his right arm, and Echo has his left, while Rex is running a hand through his hair. Several other clones press close, trying to calm him.

"I'm alright," he says, lightly squeezing Ahsoka and Echo's hands. They don't move away like he expects them to. Instead, they move closer.

"What happened?" Rex asks, calm as ever, and moves his hand from Anakin's hair to his back. 

"Nothing." Anakin shakes his head." Just a nightmare." But dread settles low and heavy in his gut.

***

Anakin can't believe Ahsoka came along. 

Actually, he can believe it. He would have done the same damn thing. That doesn't mean it doesn't terrify him. 

She's doing great, though. 

He can see her up ahead, lightsabers clutched tightly in her hands. She's poised to fight, to move, to run. He's so proud of her. 

"This is our only chance! We've got to stop them!" He hears Echo yell off to his left. Anakin's stomach drops, and his heart clenches, and he turns just in time to see their ship explode. 

"Echo!" Fives screams, horror heavy in his voice. 

"We have to go now," Obi-Wan says and turns to run in the opposite direction. The others turn to do so as well. Rex is one of the last to turn, and Fives lingers a little too long. 

_"Don't leave me."_

Anakin looks at the rubble of their ship. He feels like somebody has punched him in the face. He's off-balance, there's a bell ringing in his ears, and Fives' devastation is leaking heavily into the Force, weighing down his limbs. 

_"No man left behind!"_ Rex once said, using it as an excuse to not leave Anakin's side. 

_"No man left behind,"_ Anakin growled at Rex when he was injured once and kept telling Anakin to leave him. 

_"No man left behind,"_ Ahsoka said, no more than a month ago, hauling an injured shiny to his feet and helping him to a medic.

"No man left behind," Anakin whispers to himself. 

_They've left enough men behind._

"Fives! With me!" He orders, pulling his lightsaber out. 

The blue of his lightsaber shines bright against the dullness of the durasteel platform and the backdrop of red and black of Lola Sayu. The sight of it calms and encourages him. "You're doing the right thing," the Force whispers. 

Fives joins him, taking up a spot a couple paces behind him and to his left. His rifle is up and ready, and his emotions are tightly controlled. He's ready to do whatever Anakin tells him to. 

Anakin and Fives move forward to the rubble of their ship. "I'll cover you. You find Echo," Anakin orders, taking up a defensive position. Fives doesn't hesitate. He holsters his rifle and gets to work on digging through the rubble for Echo. 

Anakin moves as fast as he can, his lightsaber a blur as he catches every blaster shot he needs too. He knows when Fives has succeeded when a flash of relief takes the place of Fives' fear, panic, and sorrow. 

"I got Echo!" Fives announces. 

"Go!" Anakin orders, glancing over his shoulder at him. Fives moves quickly, and Anakin follows closely behind, covering their retreat. 

When Anakin and Fives meet up with everyone else, the ceiling behind them is blown, and the rocks fall to cover the entrance. Anakin takes a moment to breathe, then turns to look at Fives. 

Fives has laid Echo on the ground a little further into the cavern and sat down beside him. He's taken his helmet off and is cradling Echo's head in his lap. As good as Fives is at controlling his emotions, Anakin can still feel his worry and fear. 

"You know what to do," the Force whispers to him. Anakin actually does not know what to do. What he does know is that Echo needs healing, and though he, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka are good Jedi, none of them are healers. But, if Master Qui-Gon had been right and Anakin was the chosen one, that had to count for something. Anakin takes a steadying breath, then steps forward and sits down beside Echo. 

"Can you help him, sir?" Fives asks, hope slipping into his voice. Anakin looks up into Fives' eyes. 

"I don't know, Fives, but I'm going to try."

Lola Sayu is rife with darkness and conflict. And there is still dread sitting low in Anakin's stomach. He takes a breath and attempts to settle himself. 

_"How do you let go of your anger?" Anakin had once asked his master. He'd probably been about ten, and he can never quite remember what that conversation had been about. The only thing he remembers is Obi-Wan's answer._

_"I share it with the force."_

Anakin had never understood what that had meant, but right then, he needed to understand. It takes him a minute of contemplation before he decides to try something. Instead of shoving his emotions into the back of his mind, Anakin opens himself to the Force and gives the Force his dread. The Force whisks it away, and Anakin feels several pounds lighter. He gives the Force his anger next, and the Force takes it away. Anakin has to sit there for a minute, taking in the fact that there is not a ball of blistering anger sitting next to his heart. He shakes his head then gives the Force everything; every emotion, every fear, every anxiety. When it's all gone, Anakin feels like he could float away. 

He focuses on Padmé, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Rex, and every one of his men. He allows the care, the affection, and the love he feels for all of them fill him until he's about to burst. Serenity settles in Anakin like an old, well-worn robe. He breathes out a sigh then returns his attention to Echo. 

_"Now,"_ he thinks. _"How do I heal Echo?"_

_"The body is like a machine," Master Healer Vokara Che once told him. He hadn't understood then, but he thinks he gets it now._

"How do you fix a machine?" Anakin murmurs to himself. "One part at a time."

Anakin focuses entirely on Echo. He drives into Echo's Force presence until it's all he can sense. Almost every cell in Echo's body cries out in pain. It takes Anakin a moment to get his bearings. Once he does, he turns his attention to Echo's head. Echo has a concussion. Anakin soothes each cell, one at a time, taking his time so he can make sure he gets all of them. He moves on to Echo's three broken ribs next, giving them the same treatment. He does the burns that cover nearly sixty-five percent of Echo's body next. 

Once Anakin is finished healing Echo's burns, he turns his attention to his limbs. He starts with Echo's left arm, the only limb he still has. It's broken in three places. It's an easy fix. Echo's right arm ends right above where his elbow would be. The cells at the end of the stump scream; Anakin does his best, but he doesn't think there's anything that will ever make those cells stop crying. Echo's left leg ends right below his knee, and his right leg ends about half-way down his thigh. Anakin heals them as best as he can. 

Anakin double checks everything, making sure he hasn't missed anything. Then he pulls away, and his shoulders slump with exhaustion. He takes a moment to breathe and come back to himself, drawing on the Force to bolster himself. 

Anakin looks down at Echo and blinks in quiet shock. Echo is fully healed; the burns look like nothing more than old scars, and the stumps of his missing limbs are completely healed over and look like Anakin's had a year after he lost it. 

A hand lands on Anakin's shoulder. He looks up at Fives, who is looking at Anakin with all the trust and respect that Anakin sometimes feels he doesn't deserve. Fives' hand moves to the back of Anakin's head, and he pulls carefully until his and Anakin's foreheads meet. 

"Thank you," Fives says, with an emotion that Anakin can't place. 

Anakin reaches up and places his hand around the back of Fives' mech and says, "You're welcome."

***

"How's Echo?" Anakin asks as Fives sits down beside him. 

After they had been rescued from Lola Sayu, Anakin had seen Echo safely into the hands of the 104th's senior medic, Packer, then retreated to the main hangar of Master Plo's flagship. He's sitting on top of several supply crates, a datapad perched rather precariously on his right knee, and he's holding a stylus a little too tightly in his right hand. 

"He's alright," Fives responds, setting his helmet aside. "Packer said he should wake up in a couple days."

They sit in silence, Anakin working on something on his datapad while Fives stares at seemingly nothing. Fives is troubled, and Anakin can sense it. After a couple minutes, Anakin sighs softly and, turning his head to look at Fives, asks, "What's wrong?"

Fives runs a hand down his face. "The Kaminoans are never going to get Echo the prosthetics he needs. They're too expensive and we're expendable," he murmurs, turning his gaze to his hand, which twist around each other in his lap. 

"Not to me," Anakin says, giving the datapad he'd been working on to Fives. On the datapad were blueprints of prosthetics not too dissimilar from his own. "They're cheap and easy to make. With the help of some of the engineers, I could have them finished in about a week. The Kaminoans don't even need to know."

Fives stares at the datapad for a few minutes, then looks at Anakin. "You...I...I don't..." He stutters. He closed his mouth, takes a breath, then says, "You would do that for him?"

Anakin's eyebrows furrow, but he gives Fives a gentle smile, pressing his anger at the clones' situation into the back of his mind to deal with later. "Of course, I would."

Fives reaches out and wraps his hand around the back of Anakin's neck, pulling him gently until their foreheads meet. " _Vor entye, vod_ ," Fives murmurs. 

Anakin's heart leaps at the amount of trust, respect, and genuine care Fives is showing him, and he vows to himself that he will never break that trust. 

Anakin reaches up and clasps the back of Fives' neck. " _Ba'gedet'ye, vod._ "

***

Anakin carefully puts his tools away, a Jedi serene look on his face. He'd been back in the familiar territory of The Resolute for a week and a half. He'd finished Echo's prosthetics a few days ago, and Echo was in the midst of a rather rigorous physical therapy regime under the guidance and keen eyes of Kix. Anakin had been working on his Aethersprite, but he'd just gotten word from Admiral Yularen that it would be a quiet night, so Anakin was going to his quarters to hopefully get a full night's sleep. 

Anakin is nearly half-way across the hangar when he sees Rex striding towards him, an unreadable expression on his face. "Force," Anakin murmurs to himself, sounding very tired. He shakes his head, then continues to walk forward to meet Rex. 

Once he and Rex meet, Anakin opens his mouth to ask what's going on, but before he can say anything, Rex grabs him by the front of his tunics and yanks him down so he can press their lips together. The kiss lasts for close to thirty seconds, and Anakin, too shocked to do much of anything, doesn't move until Rex is already half-way back across the hangar. 

Anakin blinks owlishly after Rex, incredibly conscious of the fact that he is being watched by nearly every clone in the hangar. He gulps and runs his left hand through his hair. His eyebrows furrow, and his lips thin. 

"Force damnit," he grumbles. "Now I owe Padmé twenty credits."

**Author's Note:**

> Translations:  
> Vod-brother  
> Ba'gedet'ye-You're welcome  
> Vor entye-Thank you
> 
> My Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/i-am-rosebud
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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